Plundering in the Apocalypse

"I still have about 2 hours before dinner. I shouldn't waste time and learn the lower rank abilities first." It would be Shin's first time learning the abilities which he had plundered. Gravity control and Arcane webs are upgraded versions of their respective skills. So they don't count.

The Lowest rank ability he has is 'Pine Shot'. That's an F-rank ability.

<strong>[ Pine Shot (F) - Can shoot pines of different sizes as per proficiency. With good control, the shape and form of Pines can be changed. ]</strong>

As the name suggests this ability will allow the user to shoot pines.

"This ability doesn't seem much useful. But with other abilities in my arsenal, I can find a use for it." Shin started thinking of ways he can use this ability.

"Now that I think about it these Pines were not able to bypass the gravity pressure," Shin remembered the fight and it was indeed true.

"Well, it's an F-rank ability, I can't expect much." Shin sighed.

"Okay, let's try this."

"Pine Shot (F)" Shin uttered. He expected the pain to come but he heard a familiar sound and a notification flashed in.

<strong>[ Do you wish to learn the 'Pine Shot (F)' ability? ]</strong>

<strong>[Yes/No]</strong>

This took Shin by surprise.

"There was no message while learning skills though. Is it different for abilities?"

Shin thought a moment and then agreed to it. He was cautious but waiting won't get him answers.

<strong>[ Pine Shot (F) ability is being learned... ]</strong>

Shin felt a slight pain in his body. But it was negligible.

He heard a new notification and a small smile appeared on his face.

<strong>[ You have learned a new ability 'Pine shot (F)' ]</strong>

Shin felt a lot of information flooding inside his head. The information was about the proficiency and basic uses of this skill. His proficiency at this skill was zero.

"Whew, well let's get to the next one." Shin thought about the next rank abilities he has, which are Fire Ball (E), Keen Arrow (E), and Water Shot (E).

"Let's see their description first."

<strong>[ Fire Ball (E) - Cast a ball of fire towards the target. The density and the size of the sphere differ depending on proficiency. ]</strong>

"Typical Fire Ball. It's the same everywhere. Well, it's still cool." Shin said as he read the description.

<strong>[ Keen Arrow (E) - Increases the probability of critical hits from long-range attacks. Can be used as an archer or shooter. ]</strong>

"So this one was from that archer. Now I understand why his aim was never off. Too bad his attacks were not destructive enough to reach me." Shin remembers the archer. His arrows were able to pass by gravity pressure but not Arcane webs. The arrows were weak.

"This ability was not very powerful in his hands but with me. Hehe," Shin laughed as he saw the list of skills and abilities he has.

'I can do a lot of things.'

<strong>[ Water Shot (E) - Strikes the enemy with a shot of water. The pressure and size behind the shots can be manipulated. ]</strong>

"Water shot, hmm. Learning elemental-type attacks will be useful. Fire, water, lightning all of them will be useful."

Shin nodded his head in satisfaction. All three E-rank abilities are good and will be useful.

"Let's start by learning them first."

"Fire Ball." As Shin said that the same interface appeared in front of him. He replied with 'Yes.'

It was different this time. Instead of pain, his body started heating up. His mana was becoming hotter by the second. His whole body was turning red with immense heat. His body started sweating. But with the immense heat, even his sweat dried off.

A few minutes later a notification sounded.

<strong>[ You have learned a new ability 'Fire Ball (E)' ]</strong>

Once he understood the details about Fire Ball. He moved on to the next.

"Water Shot" Shin decided to learn water shot first thinking it may help him cool down a little. He was still burning from the after-effects.

"Yes" as he agreed to the notification that came in. His heating body started to cool down.

'I was right.' Shin smiled thinking about that. Before his body was burning up because of the effects of learning Fire Ball. Learning Water Shot eased his pain.

Soon another notification sounded which made him happy.

<strong>[You have learned a new ability 'Water Shot (E)' ]</strong>

"Now, Keen Arrow."

<strong>[ Do you wish to learn 'Keen Arrow (E)' ability? ]</strong>

<strong>[Yes/No]</strong>

"Yes"

As these words left his mouth Shin felt a slight pain in his eyes and his nerves which soon eased down.

<strong>[You have learned a new ability 'Keen Arrow (E)']</strong>

As Shin opened his eyes he felt his vision sharpen. His observational skills had also improved.

He was able to see the fine details in his room which he wasn't able to earlier.

"So this is the effect of Keen Arrow. It's a lot better than I thought." Shin started thinking of various ways he can use his abilities with good combinations.

Shin checked the time. He still had an hour left before dinner.

"I need more endurance. I wish there was something like endurance stat." Shin sighed thinking about the pain he might feel from learning D rank and higher skills.

"Maybe I should just increase my Vitality. It can help me reduce damage. So might as well lessen the pain." Shin concluded and proceeded to increase the stat.

Although Shin was a little reluctant at first he decided to use them.

"Although my level will increase slowly. Why would I make things more difficult for me? I can hunt more monsters than others to level up but being weak. That I can't accept that."

After observing and thinking for a long time. Shin understood why his level was not increasing as fast as others. Leveling is based on experience. As Shin's stats are very high. He had been one-shotting the monsters this entire time. So his experience received is very less compared to others who fight monsters with everything they have.

After his fight with Undead Tormentor. Whenever he killed monsters without much problem it gave him less experience. But his fight with Tarantula gave him more. As he made his fight more difficult by using weak weapons instead of his bare hands. With his bare hands, he could have easily killed that monster.

So the conclusion is he needs tough fights for experience and with his absurd stats. He can now fight monsters at level 50 easily. If he uses all his bonus stats maybe even level 70 won't be a problem.

But he is still only level 15.

So after thinking this through Shin now decided to use his bonus stats.

"Who cares about tough fights and experience when I won't be alive if I'm too weak."

"Vitality"

<strong>[VIT - 5 ( +35 )]</strong>

<strong>[Bonus Stats - 65]</strong>

"Now that my Vitality is 40. I should start learning D rank abilities too."

<strong>[Bullet Bomb - Shoots bullets that blast as they hit the target. The burst of the bullet explodes the intended target after piercing it.]</strong>

"I know it won't even compare to Alice's soul bomb. But it's still good."

"Bullet Bomb."

Surprisingly Shin didn't feel much pain while learning this skill.

'Is it because of me increasing Vitality? That's great.'

<strong>[You have learned a new ability 'Bullet Bomb (D)']</strong>

Shin was delighted. He didn't waste any time and read the description of the next one.

<strong>[Mana Ball (D) - Shoots a ball of mana at the intended target.]</strong>

"Who would have expected that Mana Ball is ability too?" Shin had once asked Alice and she told him that Mana Ball is a skill she knows. Now he is seeing an ability Mana Ball.

'Are they any different?'

He won't get any answers if he keeps pondering over it.

He decided to learn it. This time he didn't feel anything maybe because of the purity of his mana. But Only after learning this skill did he understand the vast difference between Mana Ball skill and ability.

Alice can't manipulate the mana ball too much and it has limitations. Mana ball's ability has fewer restrictions.

"This is interesting."

"Next one."

<strong>[ Acid attack - Shoots a highly corrosive liquid at the target. Strong enough to melt the bones.]</strong>

(A.N - Take this acid as reference **Fluoroantimonic acid with a PH value of -31.3**)

"Oh, that's pretty terrifying. But I don't know if it will be effective against strong monsters." Shin muttered curiously.

Shin didn't know that although this ability was terrifying. The user was never able to hit Shin with this. That's why he was unaware of its effects. With gravity control, Shin just sends them back to the user. So they were the ones to suffer.

As Shin started to learn this ability he felt a slight tinge on his skin and bones as if they were being corroded, but with his high vitality, his recovery was very fast. So he didn't feel much.

<strong>[You have learned a new ability 'Acid Attack (D)']</strong>

"Wow, now only 2 C rank and 1 B rank abilities are left,"

"I don't think I can continue this, it's almost time for dinner too. Maybe I should take a bath." Shin said as he left to take a bath as his body looks like a mess and smelled very bad.

'I learned so many new abilities.' Although Shin was happy he was thinking of other things.

He came out of the bath and was still thinking.

'How am I going to increase my proficiency in all those abilities?'

But soon he heard a voice calling from downstairs.

"Shin dinner is ready," Reina shouted.

"Welp, let's think about that later. I should eat first I am starving." Shin said to himself as he walked to the door.

"I am coming, Mom."